Glasgow: Olympic medallist Mirabai Chanu credited her family’s unwavering support through years of injuries and sacrifices after creating history by winning a third successive Commonwealth Games gold medal, saying their backing had been instrumental in keeping her motivated throughout her career.
“My family has supported me a lot till today. I have suffered many injuries, but my family supported me a lot,” Mirabai told reporters after clinching the women’s 48kg title at the Commonwealth Games 2026 in Glasgow on Sunday.
The Tokyo Olympics silver medallist also acknowledged the role of her long-time coach Vijay Sharma in helping her maintain consistency at the highest level.
“From the beginning, there are many things for which we need to work hard and stay focused, whether it is the Games or a championship, on how we have to perform and how to maintain that performance. Vijay sir has always supported me in all of this,” she said.
Mirabai admitted that she had not initially planned to push for heavier lifts but changed her approach after missing her opening snatch attempt.
“We were not going to put in so much effort in these Games, but my first attempt, which failed, was because of my own mistake. So we thought… But we also had to see what was going on in training and what more improvements were needed. So, I feel this performance is very important for me because I have controlled my body weight for a long time, and bringing it down to 48kg is very difficult for me,” she said.
The 31-year-old made a remarkable recovery from that initial disappointment and then delivered another impressive performance. Although she failed on her first try with the 82kg snatch, Mirabai did succeed with the weight on her second attempt and then lifted 85kg on her last attempt, thereby setting new records at the Commonwealth Games for the snatch in both the Commonwealth Games and the Commonwealth.
She then competed in the clean and jerk, weighing eight kilograms more than the other competitors. Even though she failed to lift the bar on her first attempt, the Indian star made up for it by lifting 105kg on her second attempt and thus secured the gold medal comfortably.
Mirabai thus became the first Indian athlete to win a gold medal at the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games and achieved a historic triple by securing gold medals at the Gold Coast 2018 and Birmingham 2022 Games as well.
When thinking about the moment when she was at the top of the podium, Mirabai stated that the most emotional thing for her that day was hearing the Indian national anthem.
She said that whenever the National Anthem is sung and they listen to it, tears automatically come out, tears of happiness since she had won India’s first gold medal.
“When our National Anthem is sung, when we listen to it, tears come out automatically. They are tears of happiness because I won the first gold medal for India,” she concluded.
(IANS)
